Being a Big Girl

Number one being a big girl task: having a job. As an only mildly big girl, it took me about a month of my summer to successfully locate a summer job. I work as a lifeguard at one of the sketchiest pools ever in one of the sketchiest neighborhoods ever, for one of the sketchiest companies ever. It's fine, I like it. It has, however, been quite the adventure. So my boss hired me without me even really applying. I told him I was certified and he asked me to work the next day. I was desperate for a job and signed up. I was supposed to work three days a week with some occasional extra shifts for the rest of the summer. That sounded pretty good to me. I have now been working there two weeks, and the world has been turned upside-down. It's a little weird because, technically, I am employed by a pool management company, but the leasing office of the apartment complex the pool is in are also sort of my bosses. Unfortunately these two parties do not communicate super well which leaves us guards mostly confused about the rules, goings on, and our employment status. So, less than a week after I started work, the pool operator was fired for something she didn't do. (Don't get me wrong, she wasn't great at her job and I'm not crying over her loss, but if they can fire her on a blatant lie, what can they do to me?) The next day, my boss (without having told me about this woman's being fired, I found that out on my own through other grapevines) called me up saying "Oh, by the way, you now work six days a week," aka every day the pool is open for the entire day. Wait a second. Excuse me, you want me to work 50 hours a week because you wrongfully fired someone and you expect me to skip church all summer when summer is the only time I am home and can actually go. That's not really going to work for me, buddy. Fortunately, I know some other only moderately employed individuals that are certified lifeguards and called one up. He is generously willing to take two shifts and we found another guy (who I'll meet for the first time tomorrow) to take two. Well, yay, now I only work five days a week. Not really the summer I planned, but hopefully they'll actually pay me the time-and-a-half I deserve. Have officially sucked it up and put on my big girl swimsuit. 

Family

I would say that I have a pretty small family, and I don't think I would say that we are super close, but I'm coming to realize that means I get to be really close with a few people, and I get to have a lot of extra family. My immediate family is my mom and dad, but al four of my grandparents live within five miles of me and I see them frequently. My mom has one brother by which I have two cousins, an ex-aunt, and and aunt. My dad has two sisters, plus I have those two uncles and five cousins. But I am amazingly blessed ro have a lovely family that isn't my blood. My grandma's college roommate, Meg, has been an integrated part of my family since before my mom was born. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving is spent with her and her family; her sons have essentially been brothers to my mom and uncles to me. A few years ago at church we casually declared that one of my best friends and I were god-siblings. I have an aunt for whom's mother my grandma was a Hospice volunteer. She actually even asked permission to be a part of the family and now joins us for almost all of our holidays. I have at least two, if not nine, fabulous sisters who are all best friends. I have a new friend at school that has become as good as a brother. Today, I officially got permission to refer to two little boys that have been family friends since before they born my nephews. My little family doesn't look so little. 

Alone

I have never in my life spent a night in my house alone. The first time I ever spent the night anywhere alone I was housesitting for family friends from church who fondly (sort of) call the row house next door the "house of ill repute" because of the working girls they apparently see there. That night was rather surreal between the sleep deprivation, fried oreo coma, bamboo sheets, and Their Eyes Were Watching God recording. I was watching the cats Gordon and Weaver, and the greyhound Bea (short for Beast). I can still count on my fingers the number of nights I've spent alone, now at three different houses none of which are my own. Then I headed to college where you are never alone...ever...ever. I came back and pretty soon was housesitting and alone again. I won't say I don't get kind of nervous when I hear funky noises, because I definitely do, but I'm also not uncomfortable. But I was laying in bed in an empty house this Saturday and realized I don't know that that will ever feel right. I suppose I've always just (reasonably) assumed that I'd always have roommates until I was living with a significant other (which, let's be real, is just a vamped up roommate). I don't feel like I ever want to live completely alone, and then, thinking that, I realized I don't think I want to get to the end of my life and find I've never lived alone. I suppose it's one of the bridges I'll cross when I come upon it, but for now it's a strange thought. I don't think people really plan for the intermediate future. I plan for the immediate future...right now I am going to school and getting internships and working. And I plan for the distant future...living in some modern apartment in a foreign city with someone I love. But what goes between here and there? No one really seems to think about that. 

Betrayal at the House on the Hill

Sounds like a bad horror flick, right? Wrong. It's a rather intriguing board game. I think it first wandered it's way into my life when one of my best friends' significant other gave it to him as a birthday gift. Said friend then brought it back home and a group of us played it just about constantly all of winter break. So I started going around raving about this game, and some family friends got it for me, for Valentine's Day (long story). The basic idea is that the players enter this haunted house and begin exploring, discovering new rooms each turn. At some point, a traitor reveals him or her self and the "haunt" begins. Haunts rance from zombies to werewolves to flesh-eating blobs. In theory, this game should not be nearly as fun as it is, but it is. Either the heros or the traitor win and we get into vicious replays of every tactical maneuver made by each side. Anyway it's great fun, only no one else is around now that it's summer to play with me. We are playing at church this Sunday. 

iPod Hallucinations

I have a habit of getting music stuck in my head. In fact, when, for a school project we weren't allowed to listen to music (or interact with any other media) for 24 hours I discovered it only prompted me to sing all the time to make up for it. Even more annoyingly, I can get a song stuck in my head having only ever heard it once. Case in point: I only ever got into Girlyman because a year after I heard them in concert I could still sing the chorus of "Reva Thereafter" perfectly. Anyway I have a sonly like that stuck in my head right now again (actually another tune I heard at a Girlyman performance) and I felt like I should share my pain with the interwebs. Brief research has led me to the knowledge that it's actually a cover of "Born at the Right Time" by Paul Simon. I think I prefer Girlyman's version, but that's probably because it's the one I heard first.

Never been lonely. Never been lied to. Never had to scuffle in fear. Nothing denied to. 


As to the title of this post, that was the headline of my first published article ever. It was about how iPods have allegedly increased "earworms" even in people who have gone deaf. Published in The TJ Chronicle in September 2007. Memories. I keep a scrapbook of all of those early articles, It's crazy to sometimes go back and read them, and then realize it wasn't really that long ago.

Something Summery This Way Comes

I usually try to refrain from simply recapping my life and write about things I find particularly interesting on worth sharing on here, but I'm just going to take a minute to report on why I've been MIA for a while. FINALS ARE OVER and with them the first year of the amazing and terrible whirlwind that is college. I love it, I have it, I mean mostly I love it, but either way it's back to Fredneck for what promises to be an amazing summer with lots of camping and friends. I've been in Lifeguard Certification all week, hopefully with a job to come...soon. I've been on a bit of a break from thinking for the past two weeks but hopefully I'll resolve that soon and get down to an enormous reading list that I've been piling up throughout the year when I was too busy for pleasure reading. These first weeks back have been kind of surreal, so it's only just starting to set in that I miss my college friends. The land of love recycles into the same old bad but enjoyable habits, ehh, it's summer, what do you expect. Anyways, I have high hopes for lots of adventures and a good tan this summer.

Dissappointment

I have a friend who I have been growing apart from for a while, but several recent incidents have forced me to accept that he either is or is becoming one of the most immature, self-centered, misogynistic, disrespectful individuals I know. He knows I am not thrilled with him and asked to talk, but I decided I could express myself better in a letter. I have it written, but have not given it to him yet (mostly because I never see him anymore). In the letter I said that his actions were upsetting because I knew he wasn't actually that bad of a guy, and I suppose when I write it a few weeks ago I might have believed that, but now I'm coming to know that his is really just one of the most detestable people I know. Mostly in that he has no respect for anyone but he also enjoys making people as upset as possible. If he knows something will bother someone, you better bet he does it, and a lot. Now the worst part of this is that he will be in really close proximity to us next year. Adventures.